The Carolina Partnership
The Carolina Partnership
The National Cancer Institute's “The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research 2008” highlights what it refers to as the convergence of advanced technology and science. It predicts that cutting-edge technologies such as computational biology, nanotechnology, and proteomics will converge to transform the way we can and will address scientific problems in cancer therapy. The NCI’s plan also envisions a connectivity leading to multidisciplinary teams composed of computational biologists, mathematicians, chemists, nanotechnologists, engineers, epidemiologists, and geneticists holding the "collective keys to our future advancements." This is the new paradigm — defined by the intersection of engineering, biology, and chemistry. Over the past few years, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy (UNCESoP) in collaboration with the UNC School of Medicine, School of Public Health, and College of Arts and Sciences, has established three highly technology-based scientific centers/institutes: the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (CICBDD), the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery (CNDD), and the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy (IPIT).
The Carolina Partnership was established in June 2008 to enable UNC to become the preeminent academic cancer drug discovery and development program in the world. A total of $18 million will be invested over the next five years to, 1) recruit new faculty positions and, 2) invest in cancer drug discovery, nanotechnology and cancer drug delivery, and pharmacogenomics and individualized cancer therapy. The six mandated and measurable outcomes of the Carolina Partnership will be:
- increased NIH funding,
- increased cancer drug clinical leads,
- increased intellectual property creation and development,
- synergized partnerships with industry,
- expanded graduate program, and finally,
- created, transforming initiatives that become self-supportive and sustainable.
In the Carolina Partnership, disciplines will collaborate with each other and key partners to achieve mandated and measurable outcomes pertaining to cancer drug discovery and development. Therefore, the Carolina Partnership will facilitate a seamless horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge, discoveries, and efforts. Cancer-specific outcomes will be to,
- validate targets and confirm leads,
- produce stable, lead formulations that are proven to be efficacious in established cancer models,
- prove links between molecular genetics and efficacy, and 4) define viable cancer drug clinical leads.
